Brad's
Weekly Feature
To Park or Not to Park
One day recently one of your teachers arrived at
our school parking lot and found, yet again, a student's car
parked in the space. Frustrated, the teacher parked across the
space (which is allocated for that teacher) and went inside the
ALC.
Once there, the teacher asked each classroom
teacher to announce what had happened to the classes in session.
Not one student volunteered that he or she was the guilty party.
However, after classes had ended, one of our
attending students came back in to the school to complain that
her car was blocked by the teacher's car. Needless to say that
student will (we hope) choose to park in student parking from
now on.
Where is student parking? Besides the spots
directly adjacent to our classrooms, there are ample spaces
along 8th Avenue. Yes, it is perhaps a further 10 seconds walk
to the classes from the student parking, but put yourself in the
teacher's position.
A teacher may be working a later shift and need
(for security reasons) to be closer to the school building. Our
evening teachers are both male and female. For the women, it is
a safety problem if she has to park in a remote area of the
school lot, especially since teachers usually leave after all
students have already gone home.
In the past, student cars have been towed when
parked in a teacher's space. This, of course, can lead to hard
feelings and financial stress. Why not, instead, remember to
always park in the student spaces (handily marked with yellow
rather than white painted lines)?
Students at the ALC respect their teachers in the
classroom, working hard and handing in assignments as required.
I would like us all to extend that same respect to a busy
teacher arriving at school with many books and materials to
carry (and after fighting heavy traffic at times) and not take
that teacher's parking space.
Each teacher is assigned a space—mine is 194—and,
I have to say, a student has parked in my space at least three
times so far since the beginning of September. Although I have
never parked across my space to make a point to a student, I do
hope I won't ever need to!
Visit our 